I’M 79-years old and have never been so uncomfortable with the political climate as I am with the one today.

Where is the respect we used to show one another? Civility and honesty seem to have disappeared from political discourse in and out of government.

The conduct of our “honorable” legislators is becoming less honorable. Corporate influence and political expediency are apparent in partisan negotiations of important issues. (Witness the health care debate).

Talk shows use the public airwaves to make vile comments about fellow Americans, engage in juvenile name-calling and incite their cultlike listeners to be rude, disrespectful and even violent toward those with whom they disagree.

This is not what I’ve been proud to expect from honest, one-for-all-all-for-one, patriotic Americans.

At bottom, though, we the people are at fault. We tolerate this dysfunctional situation and even encourage it, either by supporting those who engage in obvious un-American behavior or by being apathetic.

I don’t excuse myself for having, up until now, done nothing more than whine about the situation to anyone who would listen.

Now I’m going to be a born-again American, and ask all who feel as I do to do the same. Make known your support or opposition on key issues, but do so with civility.

Demand civility and honesty on the public airwaves, which are currently being abused by a proliferation of talk shows. Boycotting their advertisers is an effective way to do this.

Keep in regular contact with your representatives to make your concerns known, write letters to editors, and continue advocating a return to when the better angels represented America. Most of all, vote.

All Americans should be born again and insist that government be “Of the people, by the people and for the people” as promised by our forefathers. Only then will we continue to be the envy of the world.

Ralph Valle

Oakland

Pirate ship Peralta

THE PERALTA College District administration and trustees have long regarded themselves as benevolent aristocrats helping those of us less privileged to arise from our ignorance.

They stay in swanky hotels and buy fancy dresses on our tax dollars. If a question is raised, they simply pay the money back.

If security stops me outside Wal-Mart with shoplifted goods, can I simply pay for them after I’m caught?

Standards are different for the educated nobility. Some may be more culpable than others, but they all serve as crew on the same pirate ship.

Robert Vaughan

Oakland

Hurts Palestinians

ON OCT. 3, Oakland’s 3,000-seat Paramount Theatre was nearly filled with people wanting to hear Noam Chomsky, sponsored by the Middle East Children’s Alliance. MECA has given more than $10 million to help Palestinian children, which is very admirable.

After hearing remarks by MECA director Barbara Lubin and the talk by Chomsky, however, it occurred to me that their well-intentioned efforts also harm Palestinians and their cause in several ways:

By promoting and reinforcing the well-honed Palestinian “victim” narrative; by encouraging Palestinians to blame the U.S. and Israel for all their problems; and by failing to demand that Palestinians be accountable and take responsibility for their situation.

“Blame the U.S. and Israel,” seemed to be Chomsky’s Middle East theme. Although he was introduced as an “intellectual champion for peace,” he said that his goal and that of MECA is to change U.S. policy. What this means, I guess, is that peace would flow if the U.S. would drop its support of Israel (the only democracy in the Middle East) and boost relations with Hamas and Hezbollah (considered terrorist groups by most Western countries).

Chomsky acknowledged, though, that Israel (a world leader in agriculture, science, medicine) has many people interested in its high-tech innovations, but Palestinians, he said, “are weak and friendless.” Really?

Palestinians have their Muslim-block friends voting countless U.N. anti-Israel resolutions and also blocking any criticism of friends like Hamas and Hezbollah. Friends like the U.N., the U.S. and the European Union have given more billions of dollars to Palestinians than to any other more needy refugee group.

Revealing a puzzling historical lapse, Chomsky stated, “If Israel would stop its crimes, we have every reason to believe that the rocket fire will stop.” Really? And the suicide bombers and the weapons-filled tunnels and the rocket launchers set amid dense population centers and the Hamas charter that promises to destroy Israel? That would stop, too?

If question cards had been collected near my mid-balcony seat, I would have asked just two questions:

Why are Palestinians still in refugee camps when every other war-displaced people since World War II have been reabsorbed and started new lives? And what’s happened with the billions of dollars given to the Palestinians by the EU, the U.N. and U.S. taxpayers?